Women of the Otherworld 10.5 - Counterfeit Magic (13 page)

Adam brushed my hair from my shoulders and held me as I cried. When he kissed the top of my head, I stiffened, but only for a second, before relaxing back against him.

“He doesn’t deserve you,” he said, putting his hand under my chin. He lifted my face until our eyes met. “He never did.”

Adam leaned forward. His lips touched mine and I jerked back so fast I tumbled to the floor.

He gave a wry smile. “Not that scary, is it?”

He bent to help me up. I scrambled out of his way and shot to my feet, as he stared at me like a twelve-year-old who’s had his heart trampled by his first crush.

I was having a nightmare. There was no doubt about it now.
First Lucas sleeping with Ava.
Then finding out it might not be the first time he’d cheated. And now Adam—
Adam
—making a pass at me.

Adam had never hit on me. Well, okay, once when he was thirteen, he’d tried to cop a feel, but considering our ages and my early development, I’d have been surprised if he hadn’t tried that at least once. And once was all it had been.

There was no way my oldest friend just happened to be nursing a deep, unrequited love for me, and managed to hide it while working and socializing with me for years.

“Is it really that big a shock?” he said finally.

“Um, yes.
Yes, it is. I’m… I’m going to go back to sleep now, and when I wake up, Lucas will be here and you’ll be flirting with Savannah, and everything will be back to normal.”

“Flirting with Savannah?” He looked shocked. “She’s a kid, Paige. We hang out. That’s it. You’re the one I—”

“No, I’m not. Trust me, I’m not and we both know it.”

He stepped toward me. I backed up—and smacked into the wall. He kept coming. I held up my hands.

“Stop right there, Adam. Do you remember what happened when we were kids and you tried to feel me up?”

He smiled. “How could I forget?”

“I zapped you with an energy bolt and you felt it for weeks.”

The smile grew. “Some days I think I’m still feeling it.”

“And do you remember what I said?
That if you ever tried something like that again, I’d aim lower.”

He laughed. “I remember, and I get the hint.” He stepped back. “I’ll give you your space, but we need to talk—”

A binding spell stopped him mid-sentence. I strode over and looked up at him, frozen in place.

“I didn’t hit you with an energy bolt. I calmly moved your hand away and you got the message. We never said a word about it. No spells. No threats. I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Adam Vasic.”

His eyes blazed copper. He lunged, and the spell snapped. I stumbled out of the way. When he kept coming, I hit him with a knockback spell. He fell back against a lamp and it crashed to the floor.

“Remember that lamp?” I said. “Remember where we bought it?”

“You honestly think I remember buying a stupid lamp?”

“No, because you aren’t Adam.
If you were, you couldn’t have snapped that binding spell.”

A humorless smile.
“Face it, your spells aren’t that good, babe. Especially when you’re as stressed out as you are right now, which also explains why you’re pulling this shit. I’m making my big confession here, laying my heart on the line and—”

“You aren’t Adam.”

“No? What’s the explanation, then?
Glamour spell?
That only works if you were expecting to see him tonight, which you weren’t.”

“Demonic possession.”

“Right, like any low-level fiend would dare possess a demon lord’s son.”

No matter what he said, there was no doubt that the thing talking to me wasn’t Adam. He wasn’t even bothering to try now, throwing off Adam’s tone, his personality,
his
mannerisms.

I had to be sure what was going on, though, before I could do anything about it. I knew a spell that would reveal a possessing demon, but it came with a dangerous side-effect.
Definitely a last resort.

“Okay, if you are Adam, tell me this. When—”

“I’m not playing that game anymore, Paige.” The phone started to ring. He snatched it up and threw it across the room. “Do you know how much this hurts? We’ve been friends—”

“Since when?”
I said. “When did we first meet? How? Who was—?”

He dove at me. I tried to swing out of the way, but he caught my arm and wrenched it, and I hit the floor, pain screaming through my shoulder.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, coming at me again. “I just need you to sit down so I can talk—”

I caught him in another binding spell. His eyes glowed and he broke free with a snarl. I lifted my hands to launch a knockback, but he grabbed my arm, red-hot fingers searing into me. I howled in agony and he let go. I stared down at my arm, blistered and raw. Then I slammed him with an energy bolt that knocked him off his feet, and he hit the floor, convulsing.

I cast the demon reveal spell and Adam’s form shimmered. His eyes blazed pure white and when they turned my way, I saw a demon. A very pissed off demon.

He struggled to his feet. I tried to smack him down with a knockback, but nothing happened.
That was the side-effect—reveal
the demon and your spells react as they would on a demon, which meant not at all.

Dragon’s Blood & Buckthorn

I raced upstairs. Once in the bathroom, I slammed and locked the door. Then I went through the door leading into our room and locked it behind me, hoping he’d think I’d barricaded myself in the bathroom.

As the demon thumped up the stairs, the phone rang again. I thought of veering for it, but he was too close.

I snuck into our walk-in closet and eased the door shut. Then I used a spell to unlock a second door, this one leading to a cupboard barely big enough for me to squeeze into.
A decent hiding place.
But what I wanted was what we kept in this hidden cubby—our ritual materials.

I’d only tried demon exorcism once. Lucas was more adept at it, but even he couldn’t always manage the tricky ritual.

At the thought of Lucas, I hesitated. If Adam was possessed, could Lucas be, too? No, he drank a weekly potion to guard against it. So did I. Adam was supposed to, but he swore the brew gave him a headache, reacting to his demon blood. Besides, as Adam argued, demons rarely possessed the children of lords.
Too many political implications.

But even if Lucas
wasn’t
possessed, maybe this was still connected and he hadn’t really—

A thud as the demon pounded on the bathroom door. “Come out, you little bitch! I made a bargain and I’m damned well going to keep my end of it.”

I started gathering everything I’d need. Dragon’s blood, buckthorn— I pulled the box for buckthorn off the shelf. It was empty.

Empty? Who the hell would leave
—

Savannah.

Goddamn it! Taking the last piece of bread and not putting it on the grocery list was bad enough. We were going to have a talk about this. Right after I had a talk about Adam not drinking his anti-possession brew.

“Do you think I can’t break this door down? You have three seconds to come out, or that’s not all I’m breaking!”

Okay, forget Savannah and Adam. First, I had to survive long enough to chew them out.

I grabbed more boxes from the shelves, ripping off lids, praying Savannah had just misplaced the buckthorn.

“Three, two, one…” A crash as he kicked in the bathroom door.

Face it, I wasn’t finding the buckthorn. Not in time anyway. What other ritual could I use? Would rituals work against him if my spells didn’t? What if—?

“Where the
hell are
you hiding, witch?”

His footsteps thundered down the hall.

I grabbed vervain from the shelf. It was for banishing ghosts, but it might weaken the demon enough for my spells to work.

My hands trembled as I poured the dried herbs into a censer. As the demon thumped into the bedroom, I lit the censer. He went straight for the closet, and ripped open the door.

A grunt, as if he could sense me inside, but couldn’t figure out where I was hiding.
Hangers clicked as he searched. Then, with another grunt, he found the inner door. He kicked it in. Splinters rained down on me as I blew hard on the vervain, sending a cloud of smoke into his face.

The demon coughed and swatted at it. The yellow glow in his eyes dimmed.

“Vervain?” he said. “Do you think I’m some lowly shade to be banished with—
”

I hit him with a knockback. He barely teetered, but his eyes widened as he realized I’d weakened his immunity.

I launched an energy bolt, then a knockback, then another bolt and he stumbled back, dazed. I hit him again—this time with my hands—and dodged past him into the bedroom.

“You’re only going to piss me off, witch,” he yelled as he came after me. “And that’s not something you want—”

He stopped. Still running, I glanced back to see him frozen in place. Then I smacked into Savannah as she rounded the top of the stairs.

“That’s not—” I began.

“Adam. Yeah, I know. He was acting weird at the office. Avoiding me,
which is weird for Adam.
I knew something was up, but when I went to confront him, I found myself trapped. Bastard jammed a chair under the doorknob. Unlock spells don’t really work well on that. I tried calling you, in case he was coming here, but I guess he’d already arrived.” She glanced over at me. “He hasn’t been taking his anti-possession brew, has he?”

“Apparently not.
I cast a demon reveal, thinking I could get into the storeroom and whip up the exorcism potion.
Seems we’re out of buckthorn.”

She winced. “Sorry. It’s downstairs in the kitchen cupboard.”

“Why would you—?” I shook my head.
“Fine.
Let’s tie this guy up, and I’ll get the buckthorn.”

* * * *

Savannah had put the herbs in the tea cupboard, reasoning that it looked enough like tea leaves not to concern any human guests. As for why she’d needed it in the kitchen at all, I wasn’t going to ask.

I headed upstairs. All was silent up there, meaning the demon was still locked in Savannah’s binding spell.